Video reaction: Russell Eldridge

Simon Newstead

Little Common player-manager Russell Eldridge hailed ‘a great end to the season’ after beating crosstown rivals Bexhill United on Easter Monday.

Common scored two goals in the last 15 minutes for a 2-1 victory at the Recreation Ground which meant they finished their Macron Store Sussex County Football League Division Two programme with four straight wins, the last three of which were by the same scoreline.

Eldridge said: “It’s a great end to the season. I think that takes us to six wins in seven which is a fantastic effort from the group when arguably we’ve not got much to play for in terms of positional play in the league.

“The boys have worked really hard of late and probably the only thing was we let ourselves down in the first half of the season.

“We’ve shown we can compete with the best teams in the league and the group have been fantastic in terms of individual ability, but it hasn’t clicked for us.”

Strikes by Jared Lusted and Steve Morris completed a comeback victory for a Common side which will finish the season seventh.

I think that takes us to six wins in seven which is a fantastic effort from the group when arguably we’ve not got much to play for in terms of positional play in the league.

Russell Eldridge

Common have beaten 12 of the division’s 14 other clubs this term and they’ve only lost to the top two since the turn of the year, but they’ve fallen short of the top four finishes they’ve achieved in the previous two seasons.

“Most definitely there’s a feeling of what might have been,” continued Eldridge. “We’ll probably look at it as a frustrating season because we know we’ve got the individuals to produce the results, but for some reason there was a stage of the season where we didn’t quite click.

“It hasn’t been good enough by our standards, but you can only win your next game, and that’s what we’ve continued to do and hopefully we’ll come back stronger next season.”

Eldridge is already looking ahead to next term and the 32-year-old feels the club has some ‘unfinished business’.

“I’ll be keen to continue in the role and I think we’ve got some unfinished business here,” added Eldridge. “We’ve had some top three or four finishes, but our immediate goal is to really push on.

“We’ve got the ability and if we can add a few more to the group next season, as well as keeping what we’ve got, then we’ll be fine.

“I’m already starting to think of next season; there’s no rest for me. We want to do well in the league, we want to do well in the cups and we want to be successful.”